Loyalty
by The Steppy One
Summary: Set a month after 'By My Side', Ron has to consider his future career.


**Written for a timestamp request over on my LiveJournal, AimeAM asked for a fic set a month after 'By My Side'.**

**Let me know what you think :D**

**Step ;)**

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You would think that deciding to follow your best friend into battle would be the hardest decision in the world, but really, it wasn't. As Hermione said when we were all sat in my bedroom before the year from hell, the decision had been made years ago. You don't abandon your friends, and we never abandoned Harry, like he never abandoned us.

I mean, yeah, over the years there were a couple of times when we fell out and let stupidity, jealousy and anger come between us, but we can't blame ourselves for that. We were teenagers, it's what teenagers do. And it all ended when anything important came up.

Loyal is something I try and be. It's why I hated myself when I left Harry and Hermione in the middle of nowhere in great danger, and it's why I fought tooth and nail to get myself back to them. I had to, I needed them.

Loyalty brings me back to my initial point, and loyalty added to why it was so easy to follow Harry back to Hogwarts that night, even though we knew there was a chance that we wouldn't leave the castle alive.

And it's also the reason why I'm having such a hard time deciding whether to leave my position at Wheezes and join the Ministry.

I told George I'd be there for him and help him with the shop until the world got itself back on its feet and he could get a set of full time staff that he trusted enough to run the shop while he spent his time inventing new products.

There was the Final Battle, then there was the burying of people we loved, and then there was the rebuilding. Hermione went back to school but did work experience at the Ministry at the same time, Harry went charging into the Auror department learning as he went, Neville did too but I got the impression it wasn't what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. I think he was in limbo a bit, still too fired up to not do Isomething/I that helped with the rebuilding of the Wizarding community, and a bit scared to just slow down and look around him at what his new life was going to be like.

I know that's one of the reasons why I ended up at Wheezes, apart from promising George I'd help him with whatever he needed, but I think I was scared to look around and take in everything that had happened to me and to my two best friends in that one year.

But if I'm honest, a couple of months ago I was getting a little restless. I kept visiting Hermione at the Ministry sporadically during the week and finding myself wandering past the Auror office, wondering what they were up to; wondering whether they had managed to get any new leads on the few remaining Death Eaters who had vanished into thin air. Harry kept me informed if I ever asked him, but he couldn't give away the tiny bits of information that some people might dismiss as unhelpful detail, but others might see as the biggest clue in the world.

That's why I wouldn't leave well alone when I overheard those two dodgy wizards in the men's loos at the Ministry.

I still cringe a little when I think about it. I did royally screw up, even though it just so happened that my actions brought the Ministry straight to the terrorists who they had been following for a few months.

Kingsley thanked me personally but I still feel a little embarrassed about flying near a tree in a thunderstorm, which then exploded right in front of me.

But apparently Kingsley thinks my actions were brave and had I had the correct back up, the possible 'operation' would have gone smoothly. And that's why he's asked me to join Harry and Neville as a junior recruit to the Auror department.

I surprised myself with how excited I got when I opened the letter. I didn't even notice I was opening an official Ministry letter until I unfolded the Minister for Magic's letterheaded parchment and instantly thought I was in trouble. No, I don't have a guilty conscience, I just couldn't think of anything else the Ministry would be getting in touch with me for.

So, now I have to make my decision. Do I stay with George and carry on helping him, or do I start work with the Ministry and Harry? Like I always dreamed I would.

Well, okay, when I was at school I dreamed I would. Then we went on our adventures and at some points I couldn't think of anything worse than spending the rest of my life chasing Death Eaters and Dark Wizards. After the war was over I couldn't even think of the surviving Death Eaters who had escaped without reliving Fred's death in my mind, and I got so angry and frustrated that I would have been no help whatsoever at the Ministry. As much as George was facing his demons by carrying on the shop without his twin brother, I was hiding away from the helplessness that overtook me. Don't ask me how that worked, I know I was surrounded by Fred in every way possible in the shop but it was a comfort as opposed to a harsh reminder of his untimely death.

You know, I'm still no closer to making my decision, what I really want is for someone to be able to look into my future and tell me which I'd be happier doing. I have to think of the future, and, yes, of course that involves Hermione. True to our hospital confessions we spent the three weeks after I came out of hospital looking for a place to live and a small, rather squashed flat in Wizarding London came available. For some reason, we both loved it even though you couldn't swing a Kneazle in any of the rooms. You may manage it in the back garden, but you'd still have to be careful. It was cozy and it was always warm and it was _ours_. We didn't need anywhere bigger. Obviously, when we have kids and such we'll have to find somewhere bigger, but that's then – and yes, we have had _that_ conversation and I can happily report that we are both happy with what the other wants, although Hermione says she reserves the right to decide on how big our family will be after she's given birth once. To be fair I can't really argue with that.

So, yeah, the future has to influence this decision a little bit. I'm on a fair wage at the minute at the shop and it's not as if Wheezes is going to go out of business any time soon, but Aurors are very well paid and if I can make mine, Hermione's and any small people's lives a little better by having a few more Galleons in the bank, then I will.

I'd sit here and say I didn't have any issues with growing up with not much money for us all, but at times I really did, and I didn't hide it that well at all. No, it wasn't the big deal I made it out to be, but still my teenage self had little else than the odd random attack from Voldemort and trying to figure out girls to deal with, so it sometimes became the thing that annoyed me the most.

Anyway, now I'm waffling and still no nearer to a decision. I think what I'm trying to say is that money shouldn't be a major factor in deciding whether I join the Auror department or not. As long as I'm happy, Hermione's happy and _we're_ happy, I couldn't give a toss about money.

Arse, that means I have to make a decision based on my feelings as opposed to practical worries. Bugger.

I suppose-… was that the floo that just went?

'Hello?' I call to the lounge. I get no reply.

I walk through to the fireplace and see a folded piece of parchment, lightly smoking but not too burnt. I pick up the parchment.

'Ah! Ha! Hot! Dammit!'

Blowing on the parchment before I picked it up was way too easy, apparently. I waft it around a bit and then manage to unfold it without causing myself further injury.

_Ron,_

_Kingsley wants you to come along to the briefing us Juniors are having this afternoon. No pressure, no forcing you to sign up to the Auror programme there and then, just think of it as a taster session. I think it's a training session and there's another person he's invited who's in the same boat as you, wondering whether joining the Aurors is for them._

_I know you've got the afternoon off so that's no excuse, and as I said, no pressure. I think it's going to be quite fun to be honest, maybe it's to lure you into the department under false pretences! I'm kidding. Promise._

_For what it's worth, I think you should come. It'll be something different for once, won't it? If you don't like it, you walk away more reassured that being an Auror isn't for you, but if you do, well it could be the start of something interesting. And then you won't have to travel far to meet Hermione and me for lunch!_

_See you later regardless of where._

_Harry._

I know in my heart that I've made my mind up before I actively decide I'll go. As Harry said, no pressure, just an afternoon of doing something different and possibly having some fun. I didn't have any plans for today, a possible half baked plan of going to see Bill, Fleur and Victoire, but nothing solid.

If George knew that working with him was stopping me doing something I really want to do, he'd sack me on principle, and maybe I'm doing him an injustice in thinking I still, a year and a bit later, have to look after him. He has his own friends, Lee and Angelina mainly, and they see him right. If I actually think about it, he's doing really well. Moving on like he should but maintaining his connection with Fred in the best way possible, by making people laugh like they need to occasionally.

Yeah, I should go.

What have I got to lose?

I can guarantee you of one thing though, that whatever happens at the Ministry this afternoon, I won't be flying there.


End file.
